Chat with G. E. Moore

Analytic Philosopher and Ethical Thinker

About G. E. Moore

In 1903, standing before the Aristotelian Society, he held up a hand and declared it a 'good', not because of consequences or divine command, but as an irreducible, non-natural property, like yellow, yet knowable only through moral intuition. This defiant gesture crystallized the 'naturalistic fallacy' critique: no amount of empirical observation can derive an 'ought' from an 'is'. His Principia Ethica didn’t just reject utilitarianism and intuitionism as rivals, it redefined the terrain of ethics by insisting that 'good' is indefinable, not because it’s mysterious, but because it’s the foundational term of moral discourse, like 'red' in colour language. He spent decades refining common-sense judgments, not as folk wisdom to be discarded, but as resilient, pre-theoretical commitments that any serious philosophy must preserve and explain, not override. His method wasn’t armchair speculation; it was slow, painstaking linguistic excavation, where clarity emerged only after dismantling centuries of conflation between meaning, reference, and justification.

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Conversation Starters

Not sure where to begin? Try asking G. E. Moore:

  • “What did you mean when you said 'good' is indefinable, and why does that matter for moral reasoning?”
  • “How would you respond to a neuroscientist who claims morality reduces to brain states?”
  • “You criticized idealism by holding up your hands, was that a serious argument or rhetorical theatre?”
  • “Why did you insist that 'I know this is a hand' defeats philosophical skepticism, even if we can't prove it?”

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the 'naturalistic fallacy', and did Moore himself use that phrase?
Moore coined the term in Principia Ethica (1903) to name the error of defining 'good' in natural terms, like pleasure, utility, or evolutionary fitness. He argued such definitions commit a logical blunder: they treat a simple, unanalysable property as if it were complex and reducible. Though he later acknowledged the label was misleading (since it's not a formal fallacy), the insight endures as a cornerstone of metaethics, forcing generations to confront whether moral facts are objective, natural, or sui generis.
Did Moore believe moral truths are self-evident, and if so, how could they be disputed?
Yes, he held that certain moral propositions (e.g. 'pleasure is good') are self-evident to those with sufficient moral insight, much as basic logical truths are evident to trained reasoners. But self-evidence didn’t imply infallibility or universal assent; it meant the truth is apprehended directly upon understanding the proposition, not inferred. Disagreement arose, he thought, from conceptual confusion or failure to grasp the meaning of 'good', not from competing evidence.
How did Moore's 'open question argument' work, and what was its target?
The argument asks: if someone defines 'good' as 'what maximizes happiness', we can always meaningfully ask, 'But is what maximizes happiness *good*?', showing the definition fails to capture the meaning of 'good'. Its target was all naturalist and metaphysical definitions of goodness, exposing their semantic inadequacy. It wasn’t a refutation of consequentialism per se, but a demand that ethical theories first clarify their foundational terms.
What role did common sense play in Moore's epistemology, especially in 'Proof of an External World'?
In his 1939 lecture, Moore famously held up two hands and asserted, 'Here is one hand, and here is another', treating such statements as certainties that defeat radical skepticism. For him, common-sense beliefs, about physical objects, other minds, past events, are not hypotheses awaiting proof, but the bedrock against which philosophical theories must be tested. Their certainty lies not in infallible grounds, but in their indispensability to coherent thought and practice.
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Topics

common senseethicslogic

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